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Didn’t go there much but did see The Alarm and Shakatak there in the early 80s.

The Alarm’s gig was an end of tour finale and was hot, sweaty and loud. Loads of fun and banter between Mike Peters and the audience and some cracking rock & roll. A fantastic night!

Went to see Shakatak mainly because of Bill Sharpe’s keyboard playing…. or was it because I fancied one of the backing singers I’d seen on Top Of The Pops? You know the tall blonde gal…. can’t think of her name. Hang on a sec, i’ll google it. Yes, it was the lovely Jill Saward! Thanks to Google for that. Wonder if she remembers me? Anyway, rambling now…. but enjoyed the gig.

U2 here waaaaaaaay before the big time, just after the release of October I think, Wall of Voodoo as support, or am I making that up.
A fantastic gig, took days for my (de rigeur) bikers jacket to dry out, Bonos mullet, down the front, ‘I will follow’ absolute magic.

23/11/1986 THE MISSION / Rose Of Avalanche
I particularly remember Wayne Hussey pulling a young lady out of the audience and saying “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink (shurely some mishtake?) but I do shag”. Well, nothing like laying your cards on the table I suppose….

24/02/1987 THE ICICLE WORKS / The Wild Flowers

28/04/1987 JULIAN COPE / The Faith Brothers / Crazyhead
This was the Saint Julian tour when Mr Cope had his mic stand that doubled as a climbing frame!

31/05/1987 THE LONG RYDERS / Doctor’s Children
This was The Long Ryders’ last tour which was something of a tragedy as they were awesome. People were shouting for Run Dusty Run during the encore but they played I Fought The Law by The Clash (or The Bobby Fuller Four if you want to be pedantic) instead, saying it was a better song!

Incidentally, Rose of Avalanche were a great band, and I’m glad that I was lucky enough to see them twice as a support band at the Powerhouse.

A few more names for the archivists out there:
13/05/1981 THE BEAT / Mood Elevators
19/10/1981 U2 / Comsat Angels
04/11/1981 DEPECHE MODE / Blancmange
04/03/1984 DANSE SOCIETY
?/?/1984 COCTEAU TWINS
The first 3 of these were when it was called The Locarno.
The U2 tickets were £3.00, a bit different to nowadays! Still got The Edge’s song list off the stage. Like me, The Danse Society were from Barnsley. They had some decent songs – check em out. Really regret not seeing REM there. Great venue.

After the Tin can and Barbrellas I think the old powerhouse was my fav B’ham venue. Saw REM play around 1985/86 . Wall of Voodoo were/still are my fav live band. Stars of heaven were excellent . saw sisters of mercy a couple of times around 1984. Once with Hussey/ Adams and the second time with Pat M- gorgeous goth ! think this is where i saw Husker Du too around 1986. it was smaller and more intimate than the academy (or it seemed that way) and the beer prices were much less too. some truly memorable gigs maybe only bettered by the tin can ones in 1984 (REM Spring 84/ new model army/billy bragg and the great Wall of Voodoo -see tin can entry for more details if you are interested .

Saw all 4 Marc Almond Gigs there which were amazing. Also JAMC, New Order, I Start Counting,Divine, Julien Cope,The Sisters, Nick Cave and the Cavemen, the Associates ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Ls5nzfoJw ) to name a few.

Was a regular at the Thursday ‘Alternative’ nights and remember Central TV followed local hero Twiggy down there on a Wednesday night for a program about him ( would be great if someone has that on tape )

Loved that club, still have a smile to myself when I pass down that way in Brum.

saw loads n loads of bands my favorite every venue bands inc the sisters, the mission,new model army,fields of the nephilim,balaam and the angel,Marc almond, geneloves jezebel,play dead,and many more and spent manya wednesday nightin there brillmemories—-aidy

I loved this great venue on Hurst Street, both as The Locarno & The Powerhouse – it rapidly joined the ranks of the Cedar Club, Barbarellas & the Golden Eagle as a favourite of mine. Bands I saw there include:

My sister took me. I was 12. I saw spear of destiny and Marc Almond. My Sister and her friends were so cool. Into The Cure and Television. They wrote fanzines and I am grateful for the education. Such a special time. Such a wonderful place. I remember “liberator” like it was yesterday ❤️

Surprised nobody has mentioned that the Sisters of Mercy gig in March 85 ended in a riot. The band literally had to fight their way off stage…

I don’t remember the support band at all but the Sisters went on stage very late (almost midnight) and the mood in the crowd grew more hostile the longer we waited. Peering through all the dry ice from the balcony, I could see guitarist Gary Marx stamping on people’s hands throughout the set to stop them grabbing the footlights at the front of the stage.

When the band finally returned for an encore, after another interminable wait, their cover of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door barely lasted a minute before a couple of fans managed to climb up on stage and began to throw punches at Eldritch and Hussey. The music ended abruptly when Craig Adams stepped up and cracked someone over the head with his bass.

Cue mass stage invasion as security waded in and allowed the band to beat a hasty retreat. The houselights came on, and while we were leaving, a bouncer took the mic and told us all to f*** off and go to a football match if we wanted to act like hooligans…

yes, remember that night David – but not in so much detail! First Last and Always tour. I definitely recall the bit though where the guy was smacked off stage with a guitar though – one of those ‘did i really just see that?’ moments that stays in your memory, even if the full set list doesn’t!